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Chatto & Windus and Vintage have acquired a new title by British poet and author Blake Morrison. Publishing director at Chatto, Alison Samuel, bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Sarah Ballard at United Agents.
The Last Weekend is set over one long weekend and tells of a rivalrous friendship and marriage. It has a "frightening twist in the tail" and is based subtly on Shakespeare's Othello: it draws on corresponding themes such as jealousy and all the characters have similar names to those in the play.
Samuel said: "When reading it you're hooked, it is one of those really clever books and you are just drawn into it." The Last Weekend will be published in hardback by Chatto in May 2010.
Morrison has previously written both fiction and non-fiction titles including poetry and plays. His memoir And When Did You Last See You Father (Granta) was made into a film staring Jim Broadbent and Colin Firth. Chatto has published a couple of Morrison's earlier novels, South of the River and The Justification of Johann Gutenberg.